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Someone Explained Why Veganism Is Not Cruelty Free, And It Might Make You Think Twice Before Going Vegan

There are many reasons why people decide to lead a vegan lifestyle, but according to these meat-eaters, this style of living shouldn’t be adopted because it’s “Cruelty-Free.” They argue that even Cruelty-Free International certified products aren’t entirely innocent if one was to look at the vegan food industry as a whole. The discussion picked up serious heat after some vegans joined it, and it will surely draw you in, as well.

Forced labor, exploitation of workers, hazardous and extreme working conditions, lack of labor rights protecting agricultural workers and extremely low wage are still very common problems in the food supply chains, even the eco-friendly ones. Agriculture is even responsible for 70% of child labor. Since 2012, the amount of kids working in the industry has increased by 10 million, reaching 108 million in total. And what about the Bolivians who can no longer afford their staple grain, quinoa? The dramatic increase in its demand in the Western world made its price triple since 2006.

These were only a few arguments used in the attempt to make people rethink eating vegan. It turns out, however, that many do. According to the findings by faunalytics, 84% of vegetarians/vegans abandon their diet. 34% of lapsed vegetarians/vegans do so in three months or less. Scroll down to read the exchange on this supposedly healthy lifestyle and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Like someone said in the comments - it is pretty much impossible to live acruelty-free life. There are always two sides of each story. I don;t get the point of people trying to enforce their way of life/thinking over other people. Mind your own business, plate and life and everyone will be happier.

Absolutely - mind your own business and your own lives - which means don't kill animals and take their lives. A cow is alive for herself, not to be a money-making machine or a steak. If you think meat-eating is a choice, then think again. Animals have no choice. It's like saying, I love the feeling of sex, who cares if the other person wants to join in? We don't have to eat meat. A huge proportion of vegetation grown on our planet feeds cattle for America. If we stopped eating meat and ate the vegetation, then we would be healthier, the planet would be healthier and there might be a planet left for our children - but it takes brains to understand that. Let me answer for you 'But bacon..?' and "Lions have teeth' and 'I am literally allergic to all vegetables and everything but doughnuts'.... and "I had a friend who went vegan for a week and died of malnutrition' - yeah, right.

Abbey I had to respond to u because Femmy has so many Down votes that I can’t respond to her,
This next part if for Femmy:
First of all if you hate everyone who eats meat then hate yourself! I bet you ate bugs when you were a baby! Or ate something like ghat when u were a baby! Well that’s MEAT!!! 2. Not all men eat meat! That’s very rude and you are catorgrazing men as carnivores, well my best friend who is a boy, he will not eat meat! He is a vegetarian! I personally love meat. So hate on me if you want because idc. You also said “#fuckmenbutnotinasexualway” well that is in a sexual way ._. If you hate everyone who eats meat then doesn’t that mean you hate your family? Because I bet $1 mil (a lot of money) that someone in your family, maybe a cousin or something EATS MEAT!!! Now do I need to say more?

Alusair - I get your sentiment, but if everyone minded their own business there would be no meaningful systematic change in the world. If we all mind our own business, greedy corporations and cultures will destroy our planet and minority cultures will always be oppressed. So, thanks, but I will continue to mind other people's business.

I am really glad, that (and maybe only alive because) there where people who didn't only mind their own buisnesses and lives when it was time to step up against slaveholders, women discrimination, rascism, rapists, childabusers companies like united fruit and monsanto ruining lives and landslides in SA etc.
I really hope, people will realize, that the "lifestyle" of the rich countries is just outsourcing these problems to other countries, that dont have a stable enough government to prevent mayor companies from exploiting their citizens and environment from the cruelty we seem to have mostly overcome for decades if not centuries in the so called "developed" world.

I guess you never saw those videos where animals suffer day by day a horrible life and a horrible death. Yes you can be cruelty free, and that non sense about people be exploit, my goodness every company exploit people in many countries, is the SYSTEM that needs to change, so no more silly excuses be vegan is the way to go.

oh sweetie, stop yer BS. Meat Eaters FORCE their way down EVERYONE'S throat DAILY - have been brainwashing people forever about meat and dairy. And BTW, toots, eating meat/dairy is not only cruel to the billions of animals tortured and killed every year but it is WAYYYYYY worse for the environment, world hunger, and health than veganism is

Nothing is cruelty free. This is not a paradise, this is real world. While I don't judge people eating meat (I also eat it though not often),. I do judge massive production of meat, slaughter houses where animals are brought up in cages just to be killed, horrible chicken slaughter factories where animals are kept in abnormally cruel conditions etc. Farms are ok, hunting, if done well, is ok, animals kept in any sane and normal conditions, even if they are going to be used as food is, well, let's say ok. Keeping animals slummed up in tiny dirty cages and then chopping their heads off on some moving machine is not and never ok. Torturing any animal for food is not and never ok. We are meat eaters but we don't need to have concentration camps for chickens, pigs and cows. It could be humane.

It very well might be that more than 60% or even up to 80% meat and other animal parts is wasted, not used for food at all. We don't even need fur anymore, there are such great fake furs, humanity does not need real one at all. As for vegans, nothing extreme is ever good, moderation in all.

Nicola my grandparents slaughtered the pigs they raised by themselves, but they never let children watch, cause they'd be too young to understand and the very image of life and death is not a pleasant one. my grandparents weren't very rich at the time so raising their own cattle was a way of having some meat for food. you don't always have the luxury of choice what to eat

Honestly still rather use real fur instead of toxic fake fur.
Actually all the parts are in general used. Be it for animal food, cosmetics, etc.
They don't just cut off the steak and throw the rest away.
On the food. A lot of the animal feed is the soy used for veggies tofu and other soy product. The animals only again get's the leftovers that humans can't digest - cheap feed, bad for the animals, "good" for the humans.
Also the corn/grain used for animal feed is not of human consumption quality, again mostly byproducts.

I keep thinking were we would end up if suddenly all meat factories would close down. would we be able to catch that much of wild animal on our own, and if we would, would we be able to utilise every part of the animal to eat on our own? I'm talking not just the breast or thigh parts, but also ribs, cartilages and even bones? this is just an observation, people who eat meat decide to pick out the best parts and often throw out the *non-edible* parts which in fact were always eaten in the past, because meat was not an everyday product like it is now

Meat means killing a sentient being who doesn't want to die. Would you let your children watch slaughterhouse footage? would you watch it? but it's fine picking an apple... that's because it isn't natural for us to kill. Cats have no problem watching a mouse die.

Thank you, Biljana. Here in the States we just recalled 207 MILLION eggs poisoned with salmonella. This amount of waste—just thrown-out animal food—breaks my heart, because animals make the ultimate sacrifice to feed us and we repay them with filthy, torturous conditions. It does not have to be this way.

QuietAnt - the conditions of chicken factories are really poor. The animals are kept in very small, very filthy cages that potentially breed disease like salmonella. Even people who don't care about the emotional wellbeing of chickens used for egg-laying should care about the unsanitary conditions of their food source.

Yea, we should be looking at ways to clean up meat and dairy production, because lets face it. We will always end up exploiting animals to some extent, and as human beings we cant even not take advantage of each other, so most people will not ever be convinced to go vegan. But, a lot of what goes on in the meat/dairy, and just agriculture in general, is unnecessarily wasteful, cruel and bad for the environment.

The examples given are stupid. Being vegan doesn't require anyone to eat quinoa. Being vegan is employing those "exploited" migrants. Being vegan doesn't require anyone not to buy local. Etc, etc. "All we can do is reduce harm" is the entire point. No, I'm not vegan, but you people are fucking morons.

As long you keep an animal for food there will be always cruelty. You could have slaves in more human conditions but still will be a suffering for them. You got it now. Well so no more excuses GO VEGAN, for your sake and the animals sake, and the creation's sake.

I'm a little disappointed in this article. Veganism does not equate to 100% cruelty free, nor does it stand for being perfect. Before I get any further into this, I think it needs to be addressed that me being vegan doesn't make me better than anybody else, and stating that I am vegan is not a personal attack towards someome that isn't. That being said, this whole idea of "there will never be a cruelty free way to live so might as well not eat vegan" is ridiculous and albeit lazy. Not every vegan you meet is a quinoa, whole foods loving, preachy vegan (that is only in it for the aesthetic). That is a gross stereotype and is only a small percent, so please don't brush off real issues. The mest and dairy industries are the number one source of greenhouse gases, the number one motive behind deforestation. All the grain we are producing to breed (inseminate) more livestock to keep the cattle alive could feed most of the world. To reiterate, I said meat and dairy industries, not small farms which is a different argument. Veganism = doing the best you can to protect not only fellow inhabitants of the earth but our earth itself. It is not a fairytale ideology. People are self destructive creatures and it's important to weigh out the pros and cons of all the choices available to you.

nope 1.5 Billion Cows, here are currently seven billion people alive. do u math ya pleb. and most vegan do act like their better than u, the very judgy. The world's farmers produce enough food to feed 1.5x the global population. That's enough to feed 10 billion (we are at 7.6 billion currently. also thousand of trees are getting planted now and land is protected better (land with forest area) since the fire in australia

I keep thinking that veganism is another fad.. vegans tend to be self-proclaimed know-it-alls who think they're better than everybody else and that their choice not to eat animal products is morally the best. people who can't eat animal proteins because of health reasons are not that prominent and don't cause that much ruckus.

Veganism is 100 % cruelty free, i mean a vegan world would be 100% free for animals, we have to achieve that goal, we have to go toward perfection, as long we do this we will be ok. As long we are cruel on animals we will always be cruel with each other, it's all part of the same, violence attracts violence.

Since you never say anything else and you apparently DO feel free to pile your crap on everyone around you, I’d say you’re being just a tad disingenuous. I would not be able to survive as a vegan. I would literally die. So take your self righteous twaddle and pound sand.

Like someone said in the comments - it is pretty much impossible to live acruelty-free life. There are always two sides of each story. I don;t get the point of people trying to enforce their way of life/thinking over other people. Mind your own business, plate and life and everyone will be happier.

Absolutely - mind your own business and your own lives - which means don't kill animals and take their lives. A cow is alive for herself, not to be a money-making machine or a steak. If you think meat-eating is a choice, then think again. Animals have no choice. It's like saying, I love the feeling of sex, who cares if the other person wants to join in? We don't have to eat meat. A huge proportion of vegetation grown on our planet feeds cattle for America. If we stopped eating meat and ate the vegetation, then we would be healthier, the planet would be healthier and there might be a planet left for our children - but it takes brains to understand that. Let me answer for you 'But bacon..?' and "Lions have teeth' and 'I am literally allergic to all vegetables and everything but doughnuts'.... and "I had a friend who went vegan for a week and died of malnutrition' - yeah, right.

Abbey I had to respond to u because Femmy has so many Down votes that I can’t respond to her,
This next part if for Femmy:
First of all if you hate everyone who eats meat then hate yourself! I bet you ate bugs when you were a baby! Or ate something like ghat when u were a baby! Well that’s MEAT!!! 2. Not all men eat meat! That’s very rude and you are catorgrazing men as carnivores, well my best friend who is a boy, he will not eat meat! He is a vegetarian! I personally love meat. So hate on me if you want because idc. You also said “#fuckmenbutnotinasexualway” well that is in a sexual way ._. If you hate everyone who eats meat then doesn’t that mean you hate your family? Because I bet $1 mil (a lot of money) that someone in your family, maybe a cousin or something EATS MEAT!!! Now do I need to say more?

Alusair - I get your sentiment, but if everyone minded their own business there would be no meaningful systematic change in the world. If we all mind our own business, greedy corporations and cultures will destroy our planet and minority cultures will always be oppressed. So, thanks, but I will continue to mind other people's business.

I am really glad, that (and maybe only alive because) there where people who didn't only mind their own buisnesses and lives when it was time to step up against slaveholders, women discrimination, rascism, rapists, childabusers companies like united fruit and monsanto ruining lives and landslides in SA etc.
I really hope, people will realize, that the "lifestyle" of the rich countries is just outsourcing these problems to other countries, that dont have a stable enough government to prevent mayor companies from exploiting their citizens and environment from the cruelty we seem to have mostly overcome for decades if not centuries in the so called "developed" world.

I guess you never saw those videos where animals suffer day by day a horrible life and a horrible death. Yes you can be cruelty free, and that non sense about people be exploit, my goodness every company exploit people in many countries, is the SYSTEM that needs to change, so no more silly excuses be vegan is the way to go.

oh sweetie, stop yer BS. Meat Eaters FORCE their way down EVERYONE'S throat DAILY - have been brainwashing people forever about meat and dairy. And BTW, toots, eating meat/dairy is not only cruel to the billions of animals tortured and killed every year but it is WAYYYYYY worse for the environment, world hunger, and health than veganism is

Nothing is cruelty free. This is not a paradise, this is real world. While I don't judge people eating meat (I also eat it though not often),. I do judge massive production of meat, slaughter houses where animals are brought up in cages just to be killed, horrible chicken slaughter factories where animals are kept in abnormally cruel conditions etc. Farms are ok, hunting, if done well, is ok, animals kept in any sane and normal conditions, even if they are going to be used as food is, well, let's say ok. Keeping animals slummed up in tiny dirty cages and then chopping their heads off on some moving machine is not and never ok. Torturing any animal for food is not and never ok. We are meat eaters but we don't need to have concentration camps for chickens, pigs and cows. It could be humane.

It very well might be that more than 60% or even up to 80% meat and other animal parts is wasted, not used for food at all. We don't even need fur anymore, there are such great fake furs, humanity does not need real one at all. As for vegans, nothing extreme is ever good, moderation in all.

Nicola my grandparents slaughtered the pigs they raised by themselves, but they never let children watch, cause they'd be too young to understand and the very image of life and death is not a pleasant one. my grandparents weren't very rich at the time so raising their own cattle was a way of having some meat for food. you don't always have the luxury of choice what to eat

Honestly still rather use real fur instead of toxic fake fur.
Actually all the parts are in general used. Be it for animal food, cosmetics, etc.
They don't just cut off the steak and throw the rest away.
On the food. A lot of the animal feed is the soy used for veggies tofu and other soy product. The animals only again get's the leftovers that humans can't digest - cheap feed, bad for the animals, "good" for the humans.
Also the corn/grain used for animal feed is not of human consumption quality, again mostly byproducts.

I keep thinking were we would end up if suddenly all meat factories would close down. would we be able to catch that much of wild animal on our own, and if we would, would we be able to utilise every part of the animal to eat on our own? I'm talking not just the breast or thigh parts, but also ribs, cartilages and even bones? this is just an observation, people who eat meat decide to pick out the best parts and often throw out the *non-edible* parts which in fact were always eaten in the past, because meat was not an everyday product like it is now

Meat means killing a sentient being who doesn't want to die. Would you let your children watch slaughterhouse footage? would you watch it? but it's fine picking an apple... that's because it isn't natural for us to kill. Cats have no problem watching a mouse die.

Thank you, Biljana. Here in the States we just recalled 207 MILLION eggs poisoned with salmonella. This amount of waste—just thrown-out animal food—breaks my heart, because animals make the ultimate sacrifice to feed us and we repay them with filthy, torturous conditions. It does not have to be this way.

QuietAnt - the conditions of chicken factories are really poor. The animals are kept in very small, very filthy cages that potentially breed disease like salmonella. Even people who don't care about the emotional wellbeing of chickens used for egg-laying should care about the unsanitary conditions of their food source.

Yea, we should be looking at ways to clean up meat and dairy production, because lets face it. We will always end up exploiting animals to some extent, and as human beings we cant even not take advantage of each other, so most people will not ever be convinced to go vegan. But, a lot of what goes on in the meat/dairy, and just agriculture in general, is unnecessarily wasteful, cruel and bad for the environment.

The examples given are stupid. Being vegan doesn't require anyone to eat quinoa. Being vegan is employing those "exploited" migrants. Being vegan doesn't require anyone not to buy local. Etc, etc. "All we can do is reduce harm" is the entire point. No, I'm not vegan, but you people are fucking morons.

As long you keep an animal for food there will be always cruelty. You could have slaves in more human conditions but still will be a suffering for them. You got it now. Well so no more excuses GO VEGAN, for your sake and the animals sake, and the creation's sake.

I'm a little disappointed in this article. Veganism does not equate to 100% cruelty free, nor does it stand for being perfect. Before I get any further into this, I think it needs to be addressed that me being vegan doesn't make me better than anybody else, and stating that I am vegan is not a personal attack towards someome that isn't. That being said, this whole idea of "there will never be a cruelty free way to live so might as well not eat vegan" is ridiculous and albeit lazy. Not every vegan you meet is a quinoa, whole foods loving, preachy vegan (that is only in it for the aesthetic). That is a gross stereotype and is only a small percent, so please don't brush off real issues. The mest and dairy industries are the number one source of greenhouse gases, the number one motive behind deforestation. All the grain we are producing to breed (inseminate) more livestock to keep the cattle alive could feed most of the world. To reiterate, I said meat and dairy industries, not small farms which is a different argument. Veganism = doing the best you can to protect not only fellow inhabitants of the earth but our earth itself. It is not a fairytale ideology. People are self destructive creatures and it's important to weigh out the pros and cons of all the choices available to you.

nope 1.5 Billion Cows, here are currently seven billion people alive. do u math ya pleb. and most vegan do act like their better than u, the very judgy. The world's farmers produce enough food to feed 1.5x the global population. That's enough to feed 10 billion (we are at 7.6 billion currently. also thousand of trees are getting planted now and land is protected better (land with forest area) since the fire in australia

I keep thinking that veganism is another fad.. vegans tend to be self-proclaimed know-it-alls who think they're better than everybody else and that their choice not to eat animal products is morally the best. people who can't eat animal proteins because of health reasons are not that prominent and don't cause that much ruckus.

Veganism is 100 % cruelty free, i mean a vegan world would be 100% free for animals, we have to achieve that goal, we have to go toward perfection, as long we do this we will be ok. As long we are cruel on animals we will always be cruel with each other, it's all part of the same, violence attracts violence.

Since you never say anything else and you apparently DO feel free to pile your crap on everyone around you, I’d say you’re being just a tad disingenuous. I would not be able to survive as a vegan. I would literally die. So take your self righteous twaddle and pound sand.